This document provides information about the Qualitative Analysis course PRS 533D offered through the Executive Master of Public Health program at Emory University. The 2 credit hour course emphasizes qualitative data analysis techniques and uses of qualitative data in public health research. It introduces various interpretive analysis approaches and guides students in applying them to provided data through assignments analyzing interviews and focus groups. Students will also learn to use the MAXQDA qualitative data analysis software. The course addresses competencies in assessment, research, and professional development. Grades are based on individual and group assignments involving transcription, coding, memos, and a final qualitative research paper and presentation.

1. PRS 533D/Spring 2017 EMPH Program
Date of last revision: 01 06 17
DEPARTMENT: Executive Master of Public Health
COURSE NUMBER: PRS 533D
COURSE TITLE: Qualitative Analysis
CREDIT HOURS: 2
Instructor Information
Name: Laurie Gaydos
Email: Lgaydos@emory.edu
Phone: (404) 727-6554
Mailing Address: 1518 Clifton Road, Room 658
Atlanta GA 30322
Office Hours: By appointment
Course Description
This course emphasizes the analysis of ethnographic and other forms of qualitative data
in public health research. We introduce various interpretive analytic approaches,
explore their use, and guide students in applying them to data. We also introduce the
use of computer software for coding textual data (MAXQDA). Students analyze provided
by the instructor and write up the results in a final paper.
Prerequisite(s)
Students must have taken PRS 532D, Qualitative Research or have significant qualitative
research experience.
Course Competencies
This course addresses the following Prevention Science track competencies:
1. Assesses the effects of public health interventions and programs.
2. Contributes to the science base of public health.
3. Contributes to the professional and leadership development of oneself and to the larger
public health field
Learning Objectives
After completing this course, students will be able to:
1. Describe various styles of interpretation of qualitative data
2. Determine the appropriateness of different analysis approaches for a particular
qualitative study
3. Apply one or more analytic approaches to provided qualitative data and write an analysis
paper

2. PRS 533D/Spring 2017 EMPH Program
Date of last revision: 01 06 17
4. Describe special issues in ethics for qualitative research
5. Manage qualitative data files effectively to ensure ease of use and participant
confidentiality
6. Use the basic and intermediate functions of a computer software program for coding of
textual data and presentation of data analysis
STUDENT HONOR AND CONDUCT CODE
The RSPH requires that all material submitted by a student in fulfilling his or her academic
course of study must be the original work of the student. For more information about the
School's Student Honor and Conduct Code, go to:
http://www.sph.emory.edu/cms/current_students/enrollment_services/honor_code.html
If you have any questions about this specific course, contact the instructor.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that
provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things,
this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment
that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a
disability requiring an accommodation, please contact the Access, Disabilities Services and
Resources office in 110 Administration (404-727-9877). That office can guide you in determining
the process for documenting, obtaining and using accommodations at Emory University.
On-Campus Meeting Times
There are two on-campus class sessions for this class. Attendance is required for all on-
campus class sessions.
Opening On-campus Sessions
 Friday, January 6, 12:30-3:30pm
 Saturday, January 7, 1:00-4:00pm
Closing On-campus Sessions
 Friday, April 7, 12:30-3:30pm
 Saturday, April 8, 1:00pm-4:00pm
Text/Readings
In addition to journal articles, this course uses two main textbooks:
1. Miles and Huberman. Qualitative Data Analysis. 2014. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Vitalsource Link: https://www.vitalsource.com/products/qualitative-data-analysis-a-methods-
sourcebook-miles-matthew-b-huberman-v9781483323794
And Student Companion Website: https://studysites.sagepub.com/miles3e/
2. Bazely, P. Qualitative Data Analysis. 2013. London: Sage.
Vitalsource Link: https://www.vitalsource.com/products/qualitative-data-analysis-
patricia-bazeley-v9781446282984

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Students are expected to obtain a copy of each of these books for use during them semester.
You may either purchase the book in hard copy or you have the option to rent an online version
of the book via Vitalsource (see the links above).
Computer Requirements
Computer hardware, software, and peripherals compatible with Blackboard usage are required.
Please consult the Blackboard Help site and/or the EMPH Online Orientation course for general
information about operating systems, browsers, communication software, and printers.
Students are also expected to be able to access MAXQDA qualitative analysis software for this
course.
You have the option of accessing MAXQDA through CITRIX/RSPH Desktop or signing up for a
FREE 100-day student license to download the software on your computer. I recommend the
free license and using MAXQDA via CITRIX is often a difficult and frustrating experience for
students. Instructions for downloading the 100 day free version are located in the “Opening On
Campus Session” module on Blackboard.
NOTE: All students must bring a laptop to the On-Campus sessions for this course.
Participation in the lab segments of the course require a laptop that can access CITRIX or has
the free MAXQDA license.
Evaluation, Grading Policy, and Assignments
Students are evaluated based on their performance on both individual and group assignments.
Assignment Points Due Dates
Participation in weekly BB
discussions
10 Weekly –
Initial post by 11:59pm Wed;
Peer responses by 11:50pm
Sunday.
Individual Assignments 45
1 interview transcription 5 1/15
1 FG transcription (1st
10
minutes)
10 1/22
MAXQDA Project Set Up 10 1/29
Memo assignment 5 2/5
Sample coding assignment 10 2/12
Coding assignment peer review 5 2/19
Project Assignments 45
Paper proposal & analytic plan 15 3/5
Final paper 20 4/2
Presentation 10 4/7-4/8

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Grading Scale
The course grade will be based on the percentages provided above. The overall grading scale
will be:
A 93-100%
A- 90-92%
B+ 87-89%
B 84-86%
B- 80-83%
C 70-79%
F <70%
Assignment Details
The information below is intended to provide a brief description of the assignments for this
course. More detailed information is posted under the Assignments link in Blackboard.
Weekly Discussions: Students are expected to respond thoughtfully to weekly questions
posted on the discussion board, drawing on assigned. Initial posts are due by 11:59pm of
Wednesday each week. Students are also expected to comment on their peer responses
regularly throughout the semester, at least 2 responses per week (comments due by Sunday
11:59pm).
Individual Assignments
In the first half of the class, we will focus on developing your skills for qualitative analysis
projects, including the basic skills of transcription, coding, memoing and building a project file in
MAXQDA.
Interview Transcription
For this assignment, you will be given an audio file from an interview and asked to transcribe the
interview verbatim. You will be expected to turn in the written transcript and to complete a 1-2
paragraph reflection paper on how the transcribing process was for you – was it easier, harder
than you expected? How long did it take you? Did the process of doing your own transcription
make you think differently about how you will collect data in the future?
Focus Group Transcription
For this assignment, you will be given a publicly-available focus group audio file and asked to
transcribe the first 10 minutes of the focus group. Because focus groups are much more difficult
to transcribe given the multiple participants, you will not be asked to do a full focus group
transcription. As with the interview transcription assignment, you will also be asked to turn in
the written transcript and to complete a 1-2 paragraph reflection paper on how you found this
transcription, including discussion of how it was different from the interview transcription.

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MAXQDA Project Set-Up
For this assignment, you will be asked to create a full qualitative analysis project in MAXQDA
using the provided transcripts and codebook. All of the files should be uploaded and organized
in a logical fashion (at your discretion). Codes should be entered and ready to be used. And
your coder information should be entered as well.
You should take a screen shot of the MAXQDA Project Page, showing everything expanded so
that I can see your work and provide a data inventory of all the data you have available for this
project, including the type of data, who the data is from and how you would envision using the
data.
Memo Assignment
For this assignment you will be assigned one transcript from the project you have just created
and a basic research idea and asked to go through and memo the transcript where you see
items you may want to remember or consider for further analysis.
You will be asked to export your memos for the specific transcript/document and submit them.
Sample Coding Assignment and Peer Review
For this assignment, you will be given a codebook and asked to go through and fully code the
assigned transcript you used for the memo assignment using the codes provided. In order to
accomplish this, you will need to do the following:
1) Add the codes from the code book into your project
2) Code the transcript using the entered codes
After you submit your individual assignment, you will be paired with another student and asked
to complete a peer review of their coding on the same document (as they will do for you). The
peer review should include information about how thorough the coding was, whether there are
places that you question or disagree with the coding of your peer and/or places where you
believe they coded something correctly that you may have missed.
Note that I will review/grade the coding assignments AFTER you have gotten back your peer
review and will comment on top of the peer reviews.
Final Project Assignments
For the second half of the class, you will work to complete an analytic project. Details of the final
project components are provided below.
Paper Proposal and Analytic Plan
Students will take the provided data (focus group and interview transcripts) and generate a
NEW MAXQDA project (do not use the individual version from above because you will need to
create a new code book). Each student will need to come up with a proposal for how he/she is
going to use the data provided to answer a specific research question (the data is broad enough
to allow for a variety of questions). The proposal should include:
a) The proposed research question with a justification for why this question is important
b) The analytic plan
c) A plan for presentation of data
d) A timeline for completion of the paper (and presentation)
e) A draft codebook for the project

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Draft Codebook:
Students will work to develop a draft codebook for the project. The codebook should include a
mix of Super codes (top level codes) and sub codes, as well as a definition for each. I
recommend approximately 8-10 Super codes. This will generate many more sub-codes. More
than this will likely be time-prohibitive for this class.
Final Paper and Presentation:
Paper
Students will be expected to write a 6-8 page paper that addresses the project research
question(s). The paper should include the following sections: abstract, brief literature review,
methods, results (including qualitative evidence), and discussion/conclusion.
Presentation
In the final class of the semester, students will be asked to make a 10 minute PowerPoint
presentation of their final projects.
Late Assignments: Assignments passed in late without the instructor’s previous knowledge
and approval will be graded down before any corrections are made. You will lose 5% of the
grade for each day that the assignment is late. If you have an emergency that delays your
turning in assignments, please contact the instructor as soon as possible.
Verbal and Written Communications
Communicating effectively in writing and verbally is critical to public health research and
practice. Graduates of the Executive MPH are expected to demonstrate these skills in written
assignments and oral presentations. Requirements for acceptable performance in this course
include the following:
Proofread: Clarity and accuracy are expected in submission of assignments throughout this
course. Errors of grammar or spelling may result in a lower grade.
Note: Keep in mind that spell check and grammar check features of software programs
such as Microsoft Word are not sufficient. Please read over all submissions carefully for
content, spelling, punctuation, and grammar before turning them in.
Criteria for written assignments: The following criteria will be used in grading written
assignments: (Instructor edits as appropriate)
 Relevance to the issues
 Scope and thoroughness
 Logic and organization of thought
 Reference to the scientific literature in the areas related to the course
 Proper citations format (please follow track or instructor guidelines for all quotes and
citations)
 Integration of principles and theories described in class and in readings
 Overall writing style
 Correct grammar and spelling

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Criteria for oral presentations: The following criteria will be used in grading oral presentations:
(Instructor edits and provides details)
 Organization of material
 Relevance to the issues
 Scope and thoroughness
 Analysis and conclusions
 Presentation skills
 Adherence to time limits
Communicating with the Instructor
There are two primary modes of communication for this class – the "Course Q&A" section of the
discussion board and electronic mail. To ensure that your questions are answered as promptly
as possible, please follow the communications guidelines below:
 Course Q&A section of the discussion board: A special section of the discussion board
has been set up for questions/answers about the course. This area will be monitored at
least every other day (during the week Mon-Fri). You are strongly encouraged to
respond to your peers if you know the answer or can provide guidance.
 Personal email to the instructor: Email should be used only for messages that are private
in nature or which require an immediate response. Please allow 24-48 hours for
response time.
General Guidelines and Suggestions
Backing up Work: It is recommended that you compose your assignment and discussion
responses in Word, save them, then copy and paste into the appropriate forum area. Always
keep a copy on disk of all assignments or e-mails you post to the course site. Always check the
discussion areas after you have posted a response to make sure they are showing up.
Overall Course Policies
All work must be turned in according to the schedule. If an emergency arises which keeps you
from posting work at the appropriate time, please discuss the problem with the instructor via e-
mail.
This class requires active participation. You are expected to be present and contributing to the
class discussion every 2 – 3 days. If you need to be away from the class for more than this
period of time, please let the instructor know, via mail, in advance so that you will not be
considered "absent."
All lecture notes and other information presented within this course are the property of the
instructor, and is protected by copyright.
While this class does not cover content that is emotionally charged, it is important to remember
that you are in a learning community composed of a wide range of beliefs and experiences, and
every person has a right to express those beliefs/experiences within the discussion boundaries.
No denigration or silencing of others will be allowed.